Drink Your Greens

I will start by confessing that I am obsessed with juicing. Up until quite recently I have always been a pretty sporadic ‘juicer’, going through phases and then neglecting my juicer all together. Over the last few months I have been making an effort to have at least one juice per day and have noticed a pretty big difference in terms of my energy levels, concentration and mood and also physically my skin is slightly improved and my hair seem to be growing faster! In weeks where I have been slacking on the juice front, I have found that all the above positives seem reversed and I will feel a little sluggish and my skin has suffered.

You will most likely have heard about ‘juice cleansing’, where you consume nothing but juice for a certain period of time which is dependant on the cleanse, I personally have not tried this. I would struggle to go about my day to day life, which includes working, plenty of exercise and walking, socialising and all the rest, fuelled by vegetable juice alone. I also don’t feel like I’m particularly ‘in need’ of a cleanse, day to day I eat really well and feel pretty good the majority of the time. A cleanse is something I would be open to and I’m certainly not anti-cleanse but this post is about the benefits of incorporating juice into an existing healthy lifestyle not about juice fasting.

The main thing to keep in mind when making juice is to really limit the amount of sugary fruit you use, if you strip the fibre away from most fruit then you are going to be left with a sweet beverage which will send your sugar levels sky rocketing. I will add an apple, pear or some lemon, at most, to a juice generally to make sure I am getting all the nutrients from the veggies without the huge sugar rush. I also like to drink my juice on an empty stomach, in a morning or mid afternoon, to get the most from the nutrients.

There are seemingly countless benefits to adding a daily dose of green goodness into your routine and a constant stream of new studies claiming that juice will heal you and ward off illnesses. Here are just a few reasons to get juicing your greens:

Juicing allows your body to absorb all the nutrients from your veggies right away, as you have taken away the fibre your body doesn’t have to work at digesting the veg, so the nutrients go straight to your bloodstream and cells

Helps your body retain an alkaline state

Gives your body a hand with the cleansing/detoxifying process

Contains a huge boost of anti-oxidants

Helps to keep the body hydrated

Natural source of energy and no 5pm crash

Many studies are proving green juice to be anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, healing and helpful in reversing chronic illness

Healthier hair, nails and skin

Rich in chlorophyll which enhances the supply of oxygen into your cells

You don’t have to spend hundreds and hundreds on a state of the art juicer to get started, unless you want to of course! Here’s my favourite green juice recipe which I try to have most days before my breakfast:

3 celery stalks

1/3 large cucumber

1/2 courgette

Fennel

Handful kale and/or spinach

1/4 lemon

1 small apple

1″ ginger and/or turmeric

Juice all these ingredients together and you will be fully fired up for the day.

Are you a seasoned juicer? If so I would love to hear your favourite juice recipe. Or if you’re new to juicing it would be great to hear your thoughts 🙂